Post-war Hormuz escort mission takes shape, despite Trump-Macron row
“If they attacked a French or Italian boat [in Hormuz after the war], it’s Iran against the world not Iran against the US,” said retired Italian admiral Giampaolo Di Paola.
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10 days to election: Campaign in Hungary resembles political spy movie
With less than two weeks to go to Viktor Orbán make-or-break election, increasingly paranoid accusations of spying for Ukraine against opponents, muscled strongmen disrupting protestors who heckle the PM on his rare nationwide campaign rally, and a visibly angry Orbán tells young opponent of his regime to ‘say thank you’.
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Risk of death or injury in Russian regiment almost 100% (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,498)
Russia also declared it had captured the entire Luhansk region of Ukraine, but this was the third time it said so, and it was still not true.
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Poland’s refusal to send ‘Patriots’ to Middle East shows Europe’s air-defence anxiety
Gulf countries have fired at least 2,400 interceptor missiles, close to their estimated pre-Iran war stockpiles of 2,800 units, but Poland and Ukraine declined to help due to Russian threat.
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The EU built a shield for elections like Bulgaria’s. Whether it holds is another matter
Bulgaria votes in three weeks. Its information environment is already being shaped by forces that nobody is controlling or investigating, and nobody seems particularly rushed to understand.
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Ukrainian refugee stands defiant against Moscow’s Donbas order
A highway sign reading “Have a Nice Trip” in English arches over the E-50 road leading east from Dnipro city in Ukraine towards the frontline. The route passes through two military checkpoints before reaching Pavlohrad, a small city whose centre still hums with daily life. But the Ukrainian mobile drone interceptor unit stationed at the city’s entrance is a reminder that the war is raging only 50km away.
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European lawyers warn US: Trump’s attack on attorneys is road to fascism
“History shows that suppression of the legal profession is both a symptom and an instrument of democratic decline,” said the ‘amicus’ brief, on behalf of 1 million European lawyers.
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Listen: Europe resists Trump’s pressure over Middle East conflict
As Donald Trump threatens to abandon Nato, furious over the EU’s refusal to back his war in Iran, the American president warned: “The US won’t be there to help you anymore.” From Spain to Italy, find out why European leaders are finally drawing a line.
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Gunboat trade policy: how Trump’s tariffs have ended ‘free-trade’ orthodoxy
Despite its insistence that it supports ‘rules-based trade’, the EU has accepted president Donald Trump’s tariffs. And its own trade agenda is more complicated than just free trade.
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Trapped in the EU-Israel impunity loop
With the approval of the discriminatory death penalty bill by the Israeli parliament on 31 March, calls for Europe to “do something” continue to echo in Brussels. But there is little reason to believe the statements of concern will go further than that.
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Fear, but not panic, in Europe, after Trump threat to leave Nato
“Will there be panic in Europe? Depends when Moscow attacks. I personally think it will be this year, in which case we’re not ready,” said an EU diplomat.
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France expects green light for €70bn nuclear expansion despite EU probe
France’s plans for a €70bn expansion of its nuclear energy production come after EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said that abandoning nuclear had been a “strategic mistake”.
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EU allows pollution permits to pile up in bid to placate industry
The plan adopted on Wednesday concerns the Market Stability Reserve, a buffer mechanism that can inject or absorb free pollution permits to keep carbon prices from swinging too wildly.
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Are journalists liable for social media comments? An Italian court is poised to decide
Next week, Italy’s Court of Cassation will hear the case of journalist Fabio Butera. In 2023, Butera was fined €33,000 — not for his reporting, but for comments others posted under his Facebook post. The outcome of this case will determine whether journalists are legally responsible for audience comments – a decision with major implications for free speech online.
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Ukraine’s Russia-type counter-attack went badly, causing some 100 deaths (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,497)
“We laugh at the enemy when it sends its soldiers in columns under conditions of drone dominance … what are we to think of Ukrainian commanders who do the same?”, Ukrainian defence aide said.
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The ‘other’ war: Lebanon is now on brink of humanitarian and ecological collapse
What is the actual cost, measured in Lebanon’s civilian lives and the disintegration of its ecological fabric, when destruction strikes the very foundations that uphold territorial integrity and the cohesion of its communities?
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Single mother escapes Sloviansk, as bombs and drones turn city into warzone
As Russian strikes intensify near the Donetsk frontline, the bombing of a maternity ward has forced families to flee. Among them is Minko Svitlana, who escaped Sloviansk with her son. Now in a transit centre, they join hundreds of traumatised children seeking safety and a future far from the rubble.
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Listen: Will the EU finally sanction Israel after death penalty bill?
Israel has just passed a law reinstating the death penalty. Will the EU, which strongly opposes the death penalty, now sanction the Israeli government?
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Europe needs fossil fuel limits now
Danish energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen tried in vain to convince EU ministers not to respond to a looming fuel shortage by subsidising fuel consumption, and instead to focus on getting people to use less of it.
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Bucha anniversary sees EU call for Russian war-crime prosecutions
“Anybody who claims that Putin is not a war criminal should come and see for themselves”, said Polish minister Sikorski.